[August 30, 2014]NEW DELHI (Reuters) -
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has closed
a coal scam case against billionaire Kumar Mangalam
Birla and a former top bureaucrat that emerged in 2012
after an auditor's report on revenue loss to the
exchequer from allocations of coal blocks.

The CBI filed the case against Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C.
Parakh last year in relation to a block allocated in 2005 to
Hindalco Industries, part of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Group led
by Kumar Mangalam Birla.

"The evidence collected during investigation did not substantiate
the allegations leveled against the persons named in the FIR (first
information report filed in the case)," the CBI said in a statement
late on Friday.

India's federal auditor had alleged that the government's allocation
of coal blocks may have cost the exchequer revenues of about $33
billion, although industry watchers and the previous government have
cast doubts on the figure. Indian media has dubbed the scandal
"coalgate".

Though the CBI has dropped the name of Birla, the Supreme Court of
India this week ruled that allocations of coal blocks since 1993
were illegal. That would include blocks awarded to firms including
Hindalco and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.

The court will hold a further hearing on Monday, after which it will
decide whether to cancel the allocations or impose some sort of
penalty.